God Among Us 1
Torchwood Series 6 Episodes 1-4
Torchwood kicks into high gear as the stakes get more cataclysmic than ever.
The Review
Some of Season 5 felt like ‘oh we’re just back doing that classic Torchwood thing again’, but this layered emotional story Future Pain points us in a new direction. It is disappointing the Sorvix occupation is solved with them simply running because God is here. (It was also very obvious that God was the mysterious woman Tyler was talking to). Really, this story is all about grief and mourning. St. John Colchester is dead. Now I have zero expectation of this sticking, but it’s quite an episode centered around his funeral. Jack has been to too many, Orr has never been to one. We hear clips of Colchester and Colin’s wedding, and Ramon Tikaram gives an incredible performance as Colin reading a perfect eulogy. Tyler even seems humbled, joking how much Colchester hated him. Meanwhile Yvonne uses Ng (apparently the true Herald of God) to get Ro-Jedda to reveal that every world God visits dies (despite God apparently being love). It almost feels like Galactus has come to swallow up the Earth. I can’t wait for more intrigue. 9.5/10. A beautiful farewell to Colchester, even if his resurrection is assured.
The Man Who Destroyed Torchwood is just an uncomfortable experience to listen to. The whole story is about Brent Hayden, who is an alt-right media personality saying all the standards things they say. Tyler contacts him and starts exploiting him to spread disinformation, the key one being that the Sorvix aren’t actually aliens. Really, it’s just painful and grating to hear Brent droning on, and the bits with Jack’s exaggerated American accent and Orr pretending to be sexy in Brent’s dreams suck. It also feels just like a disposable story, which is also pretty aggravating to listen to. All the stuff about alt-right media personalties and their insecurity and horror is well documented and done no interest here. The only fun bits are about Colchester getting mad at Brent for contacting him. A rare miss for Big Finish Torchwood especially after such a mournful first story. 6.75/10, God is fun when she’s in a scene though.
See No Evil? Well, I didn’t expect the title to be so literal. All of Cardiff is choked by darkness, no one can see, and a predator that uses echolocation starts mauling people to death. Not a great sign. We don’t get much Ng or Orr content, Ng is upset Jack still won’t speak to her, but frankly I’m surprised she’s been integrated so quickly into Torchwood. We get two key relationship pairings, first is Jack with Colin. With the city at risk he trusts Yvonne and just goes to make sure Colin is okay. In a great cliffhanger, they start kissing and are shocked by the return of Colchester. Yeah, he didn’t stay dead long. The most surprising and best part of the story is Yvonne and Andy’s relationship as she manipulates him in her schemes using him as bait to kill the predator. We don’t quite learn why she hates the dark, but we learn Yvonne hates being powerless. Still, she and Andy hook up when this is all over. The two actors are 14 years apart, so it’s surprising, but Andy is very sweet. For a tense story about a monster shredding people, it’s quite tender. Welcome to Torchwood. 9/10, we learn more about some members of our team in a great story.
The last story is called Night Watch, and you guessed, it’s another story where we get to explore the dynamics of the Torchwood team. Orr gets to be the lead, going around being God’s night watchman until they decide to feel God’s love and get exploded into a puddle. We get a lot more Tyler content with him being broken inside, but the highlights come from Colchester/Colin and Yvonne/Jack/Ng. Colin can’t believe that Colchester is real, and Colchester himself starts to remember his death and can’t quite believe it either. Meanwhile, Jack very understandably distrusts Ng, and gets Yvonne to admit that she believes him over her. I should mention this is all happening as something called the ‘night sun’ spends the night feeding on people’s dreams. It’s a good story but coming right after the previous one it feels a bit repetitive. Out of nowhere at the end Yvonne tries to bring back Ianto somehow but ends up with a guy named Norton instead. It’s a good tale and man I love Jacqueline King as God but a bit repetitive. 8.75/10: two stories about the city going under in a row.
God Among Us 1 goes bigger than Aliens Among Us did on the threats, but the stories involving the team are still neatly small scale. There is one big misfire trying to do something different with The Man Who Destroyed Torchwood, but we get a genuinely beautiful meditation on grief from Future Pain.
8.5/10 Torchwood on audio continues to be extremely high quality, definitely surpassing the unevenness of the television show. Still, I think we’re do for a few stories that aren’t team building.
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